Attorney Audrey Blondin and Orlando Sevilla, a native of Nicaragua, discuss the civil unrest in the country. A mission trip she and her husband, optometrist Dr. Matthew Blondin, have taken for many years won’t happen this year because of the dangerous conditions in the Central American country.

Attorney Audrey Blondin and Orlando Sevilla, a native of Nicaragua, discuss the civil unrest in the country. A mission trip she and her husband, optometrist Dr. Matthew Blondin, have taken for many years

Attorney Audrey Blondin and Orlando Sevilla, a native of Nicaragua, discuss the civil unrest in the country. A mission trip she and her husband, optometrist Dr. Matthew Blondin, have taken for many years won’t happen this year because of the dangerous conditions in the Central American country.

Attorney Audrey Blondin and Orlando Sevilla, a native of Nicaragua, discuss the civil unrest in the country. A mission trip she and her husband, optometrist Dr. Matthew Blondin, have taken for many years

TORRINGTON — For the Blondin-Shea Eye Care office in Torrington, the post-holiday period has long been a busy, even hectic time of year.

For the last 19 years, Dr. Matthew Blondin and a team of eye doctors and optometry students have spent a week in mid-January in the coastal town of San Juan del Sur, where they provide eye exams, glasses and one-day surgeries to hundreds of residents, many of whom travel many miles for treatment.

But this year, which would have marked the 20th anniversary of the Volunteer Optometric Services to Humanity-Connecticut’s mission in the Central American country, the trip is off. Nicaragua has been caught in a civil conflict between its president, Daniel Ortega, since April, and travel advisories have warned of increased violence there with more than 400 people dead and hundreds detained or arrested, according to a story published Dec. 29 by the Associated Press.

“Reconsider travel to Nicaragua due to crime, civil unrest, limited healthcare availability, and arbitrary enforcement of laws,” the U.S. Department of State website says.

The Blondins founded VOSH-CT in 2001. Since then, Blondin and his team, along with his wife, attorney Audrey Blondin, family members and friends have made the trip each year, bringing with them not only the much-needed eye care but clothes, school supplies and anything else they could provide .

“Usually by this time of year, we’ve already sent bags and bags of supplies to everyone who’s going with VOSH and we arrive together,” Audrey Blondin said. “We realized that we weren’t going to be able to do that. It’s so sad, what’s happening over there. It makes us all feel very helpless.”

Matthew Blondin’s first clue that the trip was in trouble was when students who traditionally participated started pulling out. “We didn’t have anyone to go with us,” he said. “The travel warnings got worse and worse. Eventually we realized it probably wasn’t going to happen.”

After visiting there annually for so many years, they’ve made many friends in San Juan del Sur. Some even became family members. Orlando Sevilla, who met the Blondins during one of their early visits, eventually moved to the family’s home in Litchfield and has been in Connecticut ever since, becoming a U.S. citizen in 2017. Sevilla’s family still lives in San Juan del Sur, and he has traveled back and forth to visit. with his wife and children. But not lately.

“I haven’t been there since last January (2018) Sevilla said. “Since things went down over there in April, it’s been a mess. Ortega’s a dictator. He’s treating people just like Samoza (the former family regime that controlled the country, before an earthquake in 1972 led to a revolution led by the rebel Sandinistas) did. He’s a dictator.”

How it started

According to Sevilla, the unrest began on April 19, when Ortega announced he would take pension funds originally intended for elderly residents and those in need, and give the money to workers to stimulate the economy and government.

“It’s like our social security system,” Sevilla said. “In Managua, the capitol, older people started going into the streets to protest this, because there are no jobs there. People are really struggling. When the national police went out and attacked the protesters, Ortega told them to, and then students started supporting the people by protesting. And it just got worse from there.

“There are probably about 600 political prisoners now, and more every day,” Sevilla said. “If you do anything that’s thought to be attacking Ortega, you’re done. You’re arrested. You can’t fly the country’s flag, you can’t wear those colors. And you can’t talk about it. If you do, you’re against the government. The national police supports Ortega, so they’re arresting everyone and people are getting killed.”

In December, the Nicaraguan government shut down prominent non-governmental organizations and news outlets and expelled international monitors documenting alleged rights abuses, according to AP. In November, the Trump administration placed new sanctions against the vice president of Nicaragua and a top national security adviser to President Daniel Ortega, according to thehill.com.

‘We miss our friends’

The unrest and tyranny equals no safe travel for a group like VOSH-CT. Since the mission began, the Blondin team spent a week not only providing eye care and supplies to the citizenry, but making many friends. For example, Matthew Blondin is friends with local businesspeople and families who look forward to their visit each year. “There’s a guy I go to for a haircut,” he said. “I don’t know if I”ll see him again. I don’t know how they’re doing. It’s sad and scary to think that people are in danger like that.”

Blondin often provides enough medicine to a patient he treats so that they can continue until he returns. “I give people medicine for their eyes, for cataracts, for example, or for a surgery they had, and they’re going to run out,” he said. “What’s going to happen to them? I can’t do anything. We can’t send anything over there either. It’s very sad.”

Audrey Blondin has also made many friends during her visits, and has watched the country slowly recover economically during the last 19 years. “The growth there, even during the past 10 years, was unbelievable, and so good for the country,” she said. “There were new hotels, people were starting new businesses — the schools were being improved. There has been so much positive change.”

“The only people this is going to hurt is the people of Nicaragua,” Sevilla said. “All that’s been done is gone. There are no jobs.”

VOSH-CT must receive a letter of approval from the Nicaraguan Ministry of Health before booking their flight to Managua. “We thought of going, no matter what, but the ministry is part of the government, and no one’s getting a letter from them now,” Audrey Blondin said. “No one’s going over at all. There are no mission trips to any part of the country.”

VOSH-CT is traveling to Virginia in June for a weeklong clinic, similar to the ones they have held in Nicaragua, and there will be plenty of people to help, the Blondins said. More information is available at www.drblondin.com/voshct. But the couple’s thoughts turn to Nicaragua every day, as news reports continue to portray a bleak picture for the country.

“A lot of people are so disappointed that we’re not coming,” Sevilla said.

”I don’t want to be responsible for putting people in danger, so we can’t take the risk and travel there,” Matthew Blondin said. “But these are my friends. I’m so sad. There’s a hole in my heart.”